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One incarnation of the malevolent Time Lord known as the Master was a renegade, seen by his own people as one of their worst creations. Though formerly friends with him, the Master had, by this time, already sworn enmity against the Doctor. (TV: Terror of the Autons)
For much of his life, he opposed the Third Doctor and UNIT, mainly in late 20th century England, though occasionally in other times and places. He eventually became trapped there and was even imprisoned at one point. (TV: The Mind of Evil, The Sea Devils)
This being his thirteenth body, the Master began to decay as his body fell into ruin. He devoted his time to finding a mean by which he could rejuvenate himself and eventually managed to do so. (TV: The Deadly Assassin, The Keeper of Traken)
Biography
Prior to the Doctor becoming aware of his presence, the Master infiltrated UNIT's headquarters. Here he learned of the failed Nestene invasion and decided to ally himself with them. (PROSE: Reconnaissance)
- The Master appears to have originally intended to proceed directly with his plan to use the Keller Machine, as he spent many months establishing his (and the Keller Process') credentials, and must have brought the mind parasite to Earth with him prior to joining forces with the Nestenes.
The Master then appeared at a circus, his TARDIS materialising in the form of a circus trailer or horse box. He promptly hypnotised the circus troupe to obey his orders, as part of his plan to assist the Nestenes in their latest bid to conquer Earth. A Time Lord emissary alerted the Doctor to his rival's presence on the planet. (TV: Terror of the Autons)
The Doctor stole the dematerialisation circuit of his ship, stranding the Master on Earth. He returned again, using the Keller Machine to try and foment nuclear war. (TV: The Mind of Evil)
The Master recovered his mobility and brought Axos to Earth, hoping to ally himself with them. Instead he found himself their prisoner and only escaped with the help of Bill Filer. The Doctor tricked the Master into thinking he was going to abandon Earth. Instead he trapped the Master with Axos in a time loop. (TV: The Claws of Axos) Having escaped from this, the Master used information stolen from the Time Lords to visit an alien world in the future to try to gain control of a doomsday machine (TV: Colony in Space)
In the Wiltshire village of Devil's End, he summoned the Dæmon Azal, to no avail. At the conclusion of this event, UNIT captured him (TV: The Dæmons). Following a trial by human authorities, the Master was given a sentence of life imprisonment on a prison on an island designed especially to hold him. (TV: The Sea Devils) The government used him as a scapegoat for all the alien attacks that had occurred. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy)
While in custody, with the Doctor gone to Peladon (TV: The Curse of Peladon), the Master collaborated with UNIT in preventing an invasion by a fascist version of Earth. (PROSE: The Face of the Enemy). The Master quickly gained control over his jailer, George Trenchard, and nearly caused a war between humans and Sea Devils. He later escaped in the confusion. (TV: The Sea Devils)
Sometime during his obvious actions against the Doctor and UNIT, the Master infiltrated the government's Department C19 to a shocking degree. He took control of the Glasshouse, a facility for traumatized UNIT soldiers and in particular of Francis Cleary. He also tried to undermine UNIT in the short term. In the long term, he planned to use a time ring and have Cleary go to 1963, prevent the Kennedy assassination and thus alter Earth's history to make it more vulnerable to invasion. The plan failed. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy)
The Master travelled back to ancient Atlantis, confronting the Doctor there, brought forth Kronos, king of the Chronovores, and escaped the destruction that followed in Kronos' wake (TV: The Time Monster). Returning to 1970s Earth, he used time-displaced Scottish warriors to seize a nuclear submarine and threaten Britain with obliteration if he wasn't given the Doctor's TARDIS; he ended up temporarily trapped in the 18th century. (COMIC: The Glen of Sleeping) He also later worked with the Gaderene race to conquer Earth (PROSE: Last of the Gaderene)
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He forged a short-lived alliance with the Daleks, acting as their agent to provoke warfare between the Earth Empire and the Draconian Empire in the 26th century. To achieve this, he employed a force of Ogrons who, through the use of hypnosound, made themselves appear human or Draconion, thus provoking the other side. When the Doctor revealed the true perpetrators, the plot was abandoned. (TV: Frontier in Space)
For a short while the Master adopted the identity of Duke Dominus, a gangster on early 20th century Earth, but his plan on this occasion was halted by the Fourth Doctor without the Master even knowing it. (PROSE: The Duke of Dominoes) The Master met the Fourth Doctor again whilst attempting to rebuild his TCE. ( The Killing Stone)
The Master finally went under cover in Earth following the 22nd century Dalek invasion and killed David Campbell. After being defeated by the Eighth Doctor, he eventually regenerated when exposed to a lethal blast from a Dalek artefact caused by Susan Foreman. (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks)
Escape to Tersurus
By the time the Time Lord Chancellor Goth had come to Tersurus, the Master had exhausted his regeneration cycle recovering from the injuries. Goth had come to Tersurus to investigate the materialisation of an un-authorized TARDIS. (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks) Goth found the Master, in a wasted condition. The Master had by this time reached the end of his cycle of regenerations and had begun to degenerate physically. He turned into a decaying animated corpse. (TV: The Deadly Assassin)
On Gallifrey
The Master made Goth, in line for the position of Lord President of the High Council of Time Lords, into his slave. He also took over the mind of Solis, one of the Chancellory Guard. With a telepathic summons and a vision of the future created by the Matrix, The Master lured the Fourth Doctor to Gallifrey to prevent the murder of the then-serving Lord President. The Doctor failed and ended up on trial for the President's murder. In the mean time, the Master casually killed a guard with his Tissue Compression Eliminator and left it for the Doctor to find like a grisly calling card.
Secretly, the Master had access to the Matrix. He also had guessed the secret of the Eye of Harmony and various artefacts left behind by Rassilon. He realised that the Eye of Harmony, a black hole, resided beneath the Panopticon and, realizing that it had immense power, believed he could use the Sash of Rassilon to protect himself from the raw power of the Eye and the destruction that unleashing it would cause. He thought that it could channel that energy to renew himself.
The Doctor defeated the Master in physical combat and he appeared to have fallen into a crevice created by a localized earthquake. In fact, he had gained access to his TARDIS, disguised as a grandfather clock and escaped. (TV: The Deadly Assassin)
On Traken
The Master returned to the planet Traken, the center of Traken Union in a TARDIS configured into the sculpture-shaped Melkur. He set about a plan to steal the Source to restore himself. To this end, over a period of years, he won over Kassia, who later married Tremas and became a stepmother to Nyssa. Defeated once more by the Fourth Doctor and Adric, he took over the body of Tremas. (TV: The Keeper of Traken)
Personality
This incarnation of the Master was suave and debonair with a sardonic sense of humour. A haughty psychopath, he regarded most beings as his inferiors but had a mutual respect for the Doctor as a worthy opponent and (almost) his intellectual equal. (TV: The Sea Devils)
Following his degeneration, he became less charming and witty. He was mainly preoccupied with finding a way to regenerate. The vengeful and vindictive side of the Master was at its most apparent in this incarnation. While the previous version had held back for killing the Doctor (and on some occasions tried to recruit him as a partner), this version is obsessed with killing his old enemy. Hatred is the dominant emotion driving him on. (TV: The Deadly Assassin, The Keeper of Traken)
Behind the scenes
- Although they played antagonists onscreen, in real life Roger Delgado (the Master) and Jon Pertwee (Third Doctor) were actually close friends. In interviews and convention Q&A sessions, Pertwee often cited the death of Delgado as one of the factors which led him to give up the role.
- Delgado's death meant that on-screen the feud between the Doctor and the Master never came to any resolution. Originally the Master would have died saving the Doctor's life. The Doctor would have then regenerated. Rumours suggest that the story would have revealed the Master as either the evil side of the Doctor's personality or his brother, which may have explained why the Master never sought to actually kill the Doctor. The later story Planet of Fire included a line of dialogue which led to some speculation in this regard. A reference to this occurs much later in The Sound of Drums when Martha Jones tells the Tenth Doctor she thought he and the Master were brothers, to which he dismissively replies, "You watch too much TV". The End of Time later used a similar plot to the Master's rumoured finale with the Saxon Master sacrificing himself to save a regenerating Doctor.